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SOVEREIGNTY CURTAILED?: ARMENIA AGREES TO ASK CSTO PERMISSION FOR HOSTING OTHER STATES' MILITARY FACILITIES
By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent
05.10.12
On October 15 Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Turkey
where he is expected to sign a number of important agreements, and
then, together with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan he will
arrive in Baku for the summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization,
which is also expected to result in the signing of important documents,
possibly trilateral ones.
Most of these documents relate to economic cooperation, but the
Russian-Azeri and Russian-Turkish friendship is also known to cover
the military sphere. For instance, last year Russia sold S-300
antiaircraft missile systems to Azerbaijan thereby "restoring"
the balance of forces in the region that originated before when it
had sold to Armenia missiles that can only be intercepted by S-300
complexes. In fact, Russia is friends with Azerbaijan, with which
Armenia is in a state of undeclared war, as well as with Turkey, with
which Armenia has no diplomatic relations and the border with which -
drawn by the Kars and Moscow treaties of 1921 - it does not recognize.
At the same time, in military terms, Armenia continues to fully trust
Russia. In August 2010, Armenia and Russia signed an agreement that
implies continued Russian military presence on Armenian soil until
about the middle of this century as well as Russia's responsibility
for the security of Armenia.
Then it caused a negative reaction of a significant part of
the Armenian public, with many experts saying that Armenia as an
independent state must not entrust its security to Russia but should
guarantee it by itself as the Constitution of Armenia requires it.
This week Armenia gave Russia another right - to allow (or disallow)
it to cooperate with other countries militarily. On October 4,
the Parliament ratified the Protocol on the Location of Military
Installations in Collective Security Treaty Organization (OSCE)
Member Countries that was signed still in December 2011 and under
which Armenia is not entitled to host military forces or other
infrastructure of other states without the permission of the CSTO,
a Russia-led defense alliance of six former Soviet states that also
includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan and Tajikistan.
Opposition Heritage faction MP Alexander Arzumanyan, who represents
the Free Democrats party and served as Armenia's minister of foreign
affairs in the 1990s, said during the debate in the National Assembly
that the Protocol limits Armenia's sovereign rights and humiliates the
nation's dignity. In the end, only five lawmakers in the 131-member
body, including Arzumanyan, voted against the ratification. The
second largest faction in the Armenian parliament, Prosperous Armenia,
opted out of the vote.
Expert circles have already negatively evaluated this ratification.
Analyst of the Lragir newspaper Hakob Badalyan says that, in fact,
the ratified protocol means that if Armenia sees it necessary to have,
say, NATO infrastructure installed in its territory, it will have to
ask permission of countries like Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, who presented
the document, said the protocol meets the interests of Armenia, and
the authorities of Armenia do not intend to have military facilities
of states other than CSTO members deployed in the country's territory.
For the pro-government MPs representing the ruling Republican Party
and its coalition partner Orinats Yerkir this explanation proved
enough to pass the sovereign right to the CSTO.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent
05.10.12
On October 15 Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Turkey
where he is expected to sign a number of important agreements, and
then, together with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan he will
arrive in Baku for the summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization,
which is also expected to result in the signing of important documents,
possibly trilateral ones.
Most of these documents relate to economic cooperation, but the
Russian-Azeri and Russian-Turkish friendship is also known to cover
the military sphere. For instance, last year Russia sold S-300
antiaircraft missile systems to Azerbaijan thereby "restoring"
the balance of forces in the region that originated before when it
had sold to Armenia missiles that can only be intercepted by S-300
complexes. In fact, Russia is friends with Azerbaijan, with which
Armenia is in a state of undeclared war, as well as with Turkey, with
which Armenia has no diplomatic relations and the border with which -
drawn by the Kars and Moscow treaties of 1921 - it does not recognize.
At the same time, in military terms, Armenia continues to fully trust
Russia. In August 2010, Armenia and Russia signed an agreement that
implies continued Russian military presence on Armenian soil until
about the middle of this century as well as Russia's responsibility
for the security of Armenia.
Then it caused a negative reaction of a significant part of
the Armenian public, with many experts saying that Armenia as an
independent state must not entrust its security to Russia but should
guarantee it by itself as the Constitution of Armenia requires it.
This week Armenia gave Russia another right - to allow (or disallow)
it to cooperate with other countries militarily. On October 4,
the Parliament ratified the Protocol on the Location of Military
Installations in Collective Security Treaty Organization (OSCE)
Member Countries that was signed still in December 2011 and under
which Armenia is not entitled to host military forces or other
infrastructure of other states without the permission of the CSTO,
a Russia-led defense alliance of six former Soviet states that also
includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan and Tajikistan.
Opposition Heritage faction MP Alexander Arzumanyan, who represents
the Free Democrats party and served as Armenia's minister of foreign
affairs in the 1990s, said during the debate in the National Assembly
that the Protocol limits Armenia's sovereign rights and humiliates the
nation's dignity. In the end, only five lawmakers in the 131-member
body, including Arzumanyan, voted against the ratification. The
second largest faction in the Armenian parliament, Prosperous Armenia,
opted out of the vote.
Expert circles have already negatively evaluated this ratification.
Analyst of the Lragir newspaper Hakob Badalyan says that, in fact,
the ratified protocol means that if Armenia sees it necessary to have,
say, NATO infrastructure installed in its territory, it will have to
ask permission of countries like Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, who presented
the document, said the protocol meets the interests of Armenia, and
the authorities of Armenia do not intend to have military facilities
of states other than CSTO members deployed in the country's territory.
For the pro-government MPs representing the ruling Republican Party
and its coalition partner Orinats Yerkir this explanation proved
enough to pass the sovereign right to the CSTO.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress